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March 31, 2009

School’s cell phone jammer illegal

by Sam Savage

A Western Canadian high school principal's attempt to jam cell phone signals in classes was found to be illegal and had to be removed.

Steve Gray, principal of Port Hardy Senior Secondary School on the northeastern shore of Vancouver Island in British Columbia told The Province newspaper in Vancouver he conducted the experiment last week at a cost of $115.

The school has a rule against using cell phones for calls or text messages during class, yet he was seeing several confiscations per week.

It was fine for a couple of days. Teachers were really happy. People were thanking me, Gray said.

Then some of the 340 students figured out there was a jamming device and confronted him, showing that under Canadian federal law, jamming devices are illegal, the report said.

Despite the law, Gray had the support of Robert Holmes, president of the local Parent Advisory Council, the newspaper said.

He shouldn't have had to have done it. The kids should have followed the policy, Holmes told The Province.